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OPINION: ‘Trafficking In Persons’ is a major road traffic problem

‘Trafficking in Persons’ is increasingly becoming a major road traffic in problem in Guyana. Minibus operators, by and large, see passengers as cargo waiting to be moved from one location to another at all cost.

At the many parks especially in Georgetown, the touts, drivers and conductors can be seen grabbing anyone giving the slightest indication that he or she will be travelling on particular route.

Would-be passengers are pulled and tugged in all directions, just short of being broken, torn or sliced into pieces. Were that to be possible, one can well imagine a situation in which persons are split up and placed into different buses waiting to be carted off.

The closest we come to that is a situation in which passengers’ bags and their family members are split up and shoved into different competing buses.

Suddenly, these crude bus operators find a streak of courtesy somewhere in their brains if, on their way along their designated or undesignated route, they see a commuter on the opposite side of the road.

Out jumps the conductor, while the bus stops in the middle of the road to prevent competing buses from passing, and he stops passing vehicles to allow his next trafficking victim to cross the road and enter his bus.

Yes, Trafficking In Persons is often described as modern-day slavery! Passengers are seen by the very many bus operators as enslaved people who do not give of their physical energies but of their monies to get on and off the vehicles, for the most part, by any means possible .

Once the conductor grabs your fare, he does not care whether the door slides back constantly and squeezes you as you exit the vehicle. Neither does he care if your change drops on the ground and blows away as he and the driver speed off for their next trafficking victim.

Moving bodies is the name of the game – to destination or death- never mind the ‘amount’ (not number) of persons loaded , speed, swerves and dashes.

The Guyana Police Force needs to join the fight against this type of Trafficking In Persons because it is a worsening major traffic problem.

Passengers need to join the fight too by becoming less tolerant of trafficking in persons. Boycott the traffickers! Speak out Against Speeding! Report Them to The Guyana Police Force!